Topics

In most sports, the saying “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying” is an acceptable sentiment. Not in golf.

In golf, especially the kind of golf played at the highest level, the tradition of integrity trumps all others.

There are many documented stories of professionals calling penalties on themselves, often when nobody but themselves perceived the breach of the rules.

Since the Masters is at the heart of Bobby Jones’s legacy, we will use his actions in the 1925 United States Open as a prime example. At one point in that tournament, Jones hit a ball into the rough. As he addressed it with his club, it moved. Only he could see. He immediately called a rules official and assessed himself a stroke penalty and subsequently lost the title in a playoff. Without the penalty, he would have won in regulation.

When a writer approached him after the tournament to talk about the penalty, noting Jones’ dedication to upholding the game’s integrity, Jones asked that he not even mention it.

“You might as well praise me for not robbing banks,” Jones said.

That’s just one of many, many instances of players calling penalties on themselves, even disqualifying themselves, for self-confessed violations.

Friday afternoon in the second round of the Masters, Tiger Woods was working his way up the leaderboard when he hit what he thought was a perfect pitch shot at the par-five 15th hole. He hit the stick on the fly and the ball, instead of settling close for a birdie putt, clattered off the pole and rolled backward into the pond in front of the green.

At that point Woods had several options. He could go to the drop area on the left side of the fairway to hit his fifth shot. Alternately, he could estimate the spot where the ball entered the hazard, line it up with the flagstick and walk as far back as he wanted to take his drop.

Or, he could go back to the spot where he hit the original shot, drop the ball as close as possible to that divot and hit it from there.

Woods chose the third option, but mistakenly dropped the ball a couple of yards behind the divot instead of “as close as possible.”

Perhaps he was confusing the options. Maybe he thought he could go back as far as he wanted from the point of the previous shot. Whatever was going through his mind, he violated the rule.

In any event, a television viewer questioned the drop and pointed it out to the rules committee.

“After reviewing the visual evidence, and based on that only, the Committee decided that Tiger had proceeded appropriately and therefore would not be assessed a penalty,” said Fred Ridley, chairman of the competition committee.

At the end of the round, Woods signed his scorecard for a 71, three shots off the lead and was never informed of the review, a critical error on the part of the rules committee. Had they questioned him then, it’s likely a two-stroke penalty would have been levied and that would have nipped the controversy in the bud.

Later, in a TV interview, Woods spoke about the drop and said he had intentionally moved back a couple of yards. That statement set off alarm bells in the rules office and further discussion ensued Saturday morning. Woods was included in that discussion.

“Based on that and based on his very forthright and honest answers to the questions that I had, I told Tiger that in light of that information that we felt that he had, in fact, violated Rule 26 under the Rules of Golf and that he was going to have to be penalized,” said Ridley.

At the same time, they told Woods that he would not be subject to disqualification for signing an incorrect scorecard because of the earlier ruling that the drop had been legal while Woods was still on the course.

Now here’s where it gets dodgy. At some point in the process, Tiger Woods had to come to the realization he had broken the rules, whether inadvertently or not. At that moment, the path according to Bobby Jones and dozens upon dozens of golf’s household names before and since, was clear. Woods should have bowed out.

Many of those men were on the premises at Augusta National Saturday and the sentiment was clear that the onus was on Woods to withdraw. History was not on his side in terms of his decision simply to accept the penalty and play on.

It’s a decision that will take its place among all the other items of baggage that the world’s No. 1 carries around with him.

WOODS' FOCUS SOLELY ON WINNING

Considering all the distractions he faced, Tiger Woods handled his Saturday at Augusta probably as well as could be expected.

After finding out he had been docked two strokes for an improper drop at the 15th hole on Friday, missing out on disqualification only by a rule recently adopted to protect players who have been accused of misdeeds by TV viewers, Woods put up his second 70 in three days and goes into the final round just four shots off the lead.

The penalty occurred because he failed to drop as close as possible to the spot where he had hit his third shot, which ended up in the water after hitting the flagstick. He chalked it up to a brain cramp.

“You know, I wasn’t even really thinking,” said Woods. “I was still a little ticked at what happened, and I was just trying to figure, okay, I need to take some yardage off this shot, and that’s all I was thinking about was trying to make sure I took some yardage off of it, and evidently, it was pretty obvious, I didn’t drop in the right spot.”

Woods sloughed off suggestions, some of them from fellow professionals, that he should have disqualified himself for signing what turned out to be an incorrect scorecard.

“Under the rules of golf I can play,” he said. “I was able to go out there and compete and play. Evidently this is the Harrington rule, I guess. If it was done a year or two ago, whatever, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to play. But the rules have changed, and under the rules of golf I was able to play.”

As far as Woods is concerned, it’s all behind him and he is going to be gunning for his fifth green jacket Sunday.

“I’m right there in the ballgame,” he said. “As of right now I’m four back with a great shot to win this championship.”

Woods' decision to play on has weighty consequences

In most sports, the saying “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying” is an acceptable sentiment. Not in golf.

In golf, especially the kind of golf played at the highest level, the tradition of integrity trumps all others.

There are many documented stories of professionals calling penalties on themselves, often when nobody but themselves perceived the breach of the rules.

Since the Masters is at the heart of Bobby Jones’s legacy, we will use his actions in the 1925 United States Open as a prime example. At one point in that tournament, Jones hit a ball into the rough. As he addressed it with his club, it moved. Only he could see. He immediately called a rules official and assessed himself a stroke penalty and subsequently lost the title in a playoff. Without the penalty, he would have won in regulation.